positive thinking, quote 3

"right attitudes
are the source for good deeds;
& in a very real sense,
the attitudes we learn & choose to live by
determine the kind of persons we become."

- evans, c. t. (1989).
a deeper joy.
old tappan, nj: power books, p. 25.

time mangement in scritpures

" [15] be careful how you live,
not as unwise people but
as wise,
[16] MAKING THE MOST OF THE TIME,
because the days are evil."

- Ephesians 5: 15-16

9 basic human emotions

"human beings appear to have
approximately 9 BUILT-IN FEELINGS
at birth.
these findings are based on the work
of researchers such as Darwin, Demos,
Eknan, Izard, Nathanson, &, esp Tomkins.
these feelings later combine with each
other & experience to form our complex
emotional life ....

A. positive feelings (2)
1. INTEREST
2. ENJOYMENT

B. feeling to reset & prepare the nervous systen (1)
3. SUPRISE

C. negative feelings (6)
4. DISTRESS
5. ANGER
6. FEAR
7. SHAME
8. DISGUST (reaction to bad taste)
9. DISMELL (reaction to bad smell)

NB: "each of these feelings is signaled
by a special facial expression in your baby."

personal reflection:
i attended a talk given by an
addiction counselor at de la salle univeristy - manila
years bach who classified feelings into 4 major ones:
1. glad,
2. mad,
2. sad, &
4. afraid.
probably the 9 above can be incorporated in the 4 this way:
1. glad (interest, enjoyment, surprise)
2. mad (anger)
3. sad (distress, disgust, dissmell), &
4. afraid (fear, shame).
although, i do not feel too comfortable
grouping the emotions under "sad" & in that talk
"shame" was considered a distinct emotion apart
from "fear".

positive thinking, quote 2

"the longer i live
the more convinced i become
that life is 10% what happens to us &
90% how we respond to it."
- chuck swindoll

happiness, guidelines

1. free your heart from hate.
2. free your mind from worry.
3. live simply.
4. give more.
5. expect less.

source: fwd ppt by dandount@hotmail.com, 2007 june 09

positive thinking, quote 1

"YOU ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE"

"when faced with the inevitable,
you always have a choice.... as
i learned during my liberal arts
education, any symbol can have,
in the imaginative context,
TWO VERSIONS, a POSITIVE and a
NEGATIVE. if you spill your milk,
you're left with a glass which is
either half empty or half full....
you may not be able to alter reality,
but you can alter your ATTITUDE
towards it, & this, paradoxically,
alters reality.
try it and see."

-- margaret atwood
the university of toronto commencement, 1983
c/o aceoralde@yahoo.com, 2007 june 06

patience, importance

"it is important to have determination
& optimism & patience.
if you lack patience,
even when you face
some small obstacle,
you lose courage.
there is a Tibetan saying,
'even if you have failed at something 9 times,
you have still given it effort 9 times.'
i think that's important. use your brain to
analyze the situation. do not rush through it,
but think. once you decide what to do about
the obstacle, then there's a possibility that
you will achieve your goal."

- the dalai lama
emory university commencement, 1998
c/o aceoralde@yahoo.com

mission in life, an inspirational example

> the hero

Juan Mann is a pseudonym of a
25-year-old australian who has
committed himself to giving "FREE HUGS",
as his large poster says.
since 2004, every thursday, he goes
to the pitt street mall, one of sydney's
(sydney is australia's biggest city) busiest streets,
to embrace anyone who would come to get a
free hug from him.

> the initial experience (the seed)

"... he thought he would last an hour at most.
he had a friend stand by to kee an eye on him
& left his wallet at home ....
"'i genuinely expected the worst,'....
but after 15 minutes, a woman approached
& told him how her dog died that morning,
which was also the first anniversary of her
only daughter's death, & she really needed
a hug.
"'& that 1st woman, it was more than a hug,
IT MEANT SOMETHING TO HER.'"

> the effects (the fruits)

-- "'every week a number of people will tell me
their STORY, how they have suffered &
how they get by, the mistakes they've made
& the lessons they've learned.
i'm very fortunate in what i do
in that I LEARN from everyone else's mistakes
as well as my own. i am very fortunate in that
i have a lot of other people's perspectives.'"
-- shimon moore, lead singer of sydney band
sick puppies, befriended Mann after they met
in the mall & put together a video of Mann on
the YouTube web site: http://youtube.com/
watch?v=vr3_RRJdd4 which has been named as
the most inspirational clip on the site with
almost 14 million viewers.
-- "& from taipei to paris to peru to tokyo
admiring followers have set up their own
'free hug' practices.
-- Mann now spends 4 hours a day answering
emails. he estimates having hugged about
500,000 people over the 3 years since he
devised his "'absurd approach' TO GIVE THE
CITY A HUMAN TOUCH.'"

> the story behind (the wounding)

in early 2004, he returned from europe
"lonely & unhappy at his parents' divorce....
"'i was ALONE. my family was elsewhere,
my friends had all moved on. it was just me....
& i had to do something.... & i sat around
for months doing nothing. noticing, just
watching the world.... & i thought
i would try to step out of that
& try to DO SOMETHING different."

> the demand for the ministry

"Mann said his 'junk food emotion' fulfills
a need people have for someone to LISTEN
to their problems without the stigma of
calling a help line or seeking out a
professional counselor.
"'there's just no ANONYMOUS place
where people can go and dump their guilt,
their suffering & their anguish,' he says.
"... when local authorities threatened
to stop mann's campaign for public safety
reasons, some 10,000 people signed a petition
to keep it alive.
"and every thursday, he puts on his soft purple
velvet jacket & takes up his place in pitt street
mall, hugging shoppers, tourists & workers,
particularly urging those he feels miss out on
HUMAN CONTACT, such as old people and businessmen,
to come over and 'lay it on me.'"

> the mission

"...Mann [who has had death threats on the one hand
& being idolized, even compared to jesus christ on
the other] ... said he will keep hugging pepole
'until nobody wants me, until i look like a
dirty old man.
"'I'VE GOT TO DO IT. it would be selfish of me to
stop & selfish of me to walk away.'"

source: 7Days (2007 April 29). "spreading
the love," p. 6.

fallacy of the majority

"a father's last request"

"a husband and wife had 4 boys.
the odd part of it was that the
older 3 had red hair, light skin,
& were tall,
while the youngest son had black
hair, dark eyes, & was short.

"the father eventually took ill
& was lying on his deathbed
when he turned to his wife & said,
'honey, before i die, be totally
honest with me -- is our youngest
son my child?'

"the wife replied, 'i swear on
everything that's holy that
he is your son.'

"with that the husband passed away.
the wife then muttered,
'thank god he didn't ask about the 3!'"

- http://jokes.comedycentral.com/random_joke.ask?_id=4182

personal reflection:
truth is not always in the majority, in the numbers.
during joseph estrada's presidential campaign,
a priest was interviewed about the famous saying,
'vox populi, vox dei" ("the voice of the people
is the voice of god"). the priest said, the voice
of the people when jesus was being sentenced to
death was "crucify him! crucify him!"
was the truth in them?

AA (alcoholics anonymous)

when founded: 1935
where: akron, ohio
who: bill wilson, a NY stockbroker
: dr. bob smith, an Akron surgeon
method:
> the 12-step recovery program from chemical dependency
> major steps
-- admitting you are powerless over alcohol --
that your life has become unmanageable
-- believing that a power greater than yourself
could restore you to sanity
-- making a list of all persons you have harmed, &
-- becoming willing to make amends to them all.

"AA is no success story in the ordinary sense of the word.
it is a story of suffering transmuted, under grace, into
spiritual progress."
- bill wison, co-founder of AA

source: xpress (2007 may 17), p. 10. "sober celebration."
cf: www.aa.org